Check out our favourite films of 2022 below:

Honourable Mention: Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter

The horror genre had another great year in 2023, and one film that was uniquely frightening was the gothic horror of André Øvredal’s Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter. Øvredal explored the fresh territory of the vampire genre with this picture, and it delivered on the sheer shock and terror of its horror moments. This Dracula was a beast of the abyss, and the blood and dread that followed made for a terrifying experience. Audiences were sure to feel a ghoulish shiver run up their spines with this horrorfest, and Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter delivered on its promise to leave you with plenty of sleepless nights.

10. Napoleon

Sir Ridley Scott brought his immense talent for world creation to life on the big screen once again with his colossal epic Napoleon, and it was an awe-inspiring watch. With two fearless performances from Academy Award winner Joaquin Phoenix as ambitious general Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as Josephine, the woman he would conquer the world for, Napoleon was a rousing and ambitious project that chronicled the age of the Napoleonic Wars and the man who re-shape the destiny of Europe. With its gigantic battle scenes, beautiful costumes and set pieces and intense emotional drama at the heart of its story, Napoleon made for an incredible sight on the big screen.

9. Killers of the Flower Moon

Martin Scorsese is a living legend of cinema, and he brought an incredibly profound and deeply heart-wrenching tale of love and betrayal to life in Killers of the Flower Moon. With its scale and majesty, Killers of the Flower Moon could be considered to be the great director’s magnum opus, and in every frame, you felt the director’s pull to his characters and this American story that was so deeply personal to him to tell. Leonardo DiCaprio shocked audiences with a completely left-facing turn as the slow-witted and malignant Ernest Burkhart, while Lily Gladstone brought a dynamic bravery to the role of Burkhart’s wife Mollie, who served as the voice of the Osage people and the terrible troubles that this picture documented. Everything of Scorsese as a filmmaker was present in Killers of the Flower Moon, and it’s an utterly triumphant work.

8. Air

A true underdog story awaited audiences in Air, and this true-life story of ‘hustle and grind’ and the decisions that would help turn a floundering Oregon-based shoe company called Nike in the late 1980s into a gigantic powerhouse brand was on show for everyone to see in all its glory. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Tucker, and Triple Crown-winning actress Viola Davis only added to the star power of this picture, and Air was a fun, enjoyable and ultimately uplifting story of why sometimes you’ve got to ‘just do it’.

7. Barbie

Barbie went blockbuster in 2023, and this prancing, dancing and neon-pink whirlwind of cinema was an utter pop culture phenomenon that saw audiences lining up in their ‘think pink’ wardrobe, and this was fun for everyone to enjoy. Margot Robbie shines in this ‘fish out of water’ story, as Barbie finds her way into the real world, and things get real. Then there was Ken. Oh, Ken, and Ryan Gosling was completely addicting to watch in his performance, and man-o-man, could he hold a tune. Barbie was a pure party of delight, filled with every shade of pink imaginable, and it was the perfect film to groove out to with your girlfriends…and maybe a Ken or two.

6. What’s Love Got to Do with It?

My feeling is that 2023 is bringing back the rom-com, and one of the year’s best was the fabulous, fun and poignant watch of What’s Love Got to Do with It? Directed by celebrated British filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and written by socialite turned screenwriter Jemima Khan, this was a poignant and layered film that explored the very construct of love and how it grows between two people, and the result made for a film that was both sassy and serious. Lily James again shows that she’s a serious talent to keep an eye on, and the end result was a charming picture packed full of joy that audiences were sure to fall in love with.

5. John Wick: Chapter 4

Keanu Reeves and director Chad Stahelski have forever changed the landscape of action cinema with their work on the John Wick franchise, and it got gnarly in the fourth chapter as the legendary assassin John Wick (Reeves), the ‘Baba Yaga’ himself, declared war on the High Table itself, and the result was utterly explosive. Big action met big drama in John Wick: Chapter 4, and the result was an utter rush that had your adrenal gland working overtime in one of the year’s best action pictures.

4. The Equalizer 3

As the culminating chapter to one of the decade’s greatest action franchises, much expectation was levelled on Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer 3 and the return of Denzel Washington as Robert McCall. And the two-time Academy Award winner didn’t disappoint in this dramatic, edgy and visceral action film. Operatic in its construction and delivery, Fuqua and Washington delivered this final chapter for this modern-day ronin who had to deliver justice at all costs. Violent and instinctive, The Equalizer 3 made for an intense and bold watch, and it was undoubtedly one of this year’s best cinematic events.

3. Saltburn

Emerald Fennel shocked audiences with her debut feature, Promising Young Women, and its follow-up, the fantastical gothic thriller Saltburn, which was a film of shocking INSANITY! Fennell invited audiences into a lavish experience of debauchery and excess with this psychodrama, and its twisting, edgy and shocking narrative made for one of the most intense cinematic experiences of the year. Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi cemented their position as two stars worthy of the A-list, and the Saltburn made for an experience of pure, unadulterated hedonism with the volume turned all the way up. Saltburn was a cinematic experience that set your senses on fire, with its narrative left to spin around your mind for days.

2. Living

Bill Nighy is an absolute treasure of an actor, and he gave the performance of a lifetime as Mr Rodney Williams in the tranquil and deeply moving Living. An emotional rollercoaster exploring the very necessity of life and what makes it meaningful, Living was an emotionally rousing, beautifully filmed piece of cinema, and by its end frame, you were sure to be wiping away the tears. Powerful in its construction and delivery, Living was an incredibly special watch, and its story was sure to find its way into the hearts of all audiences who basked in its beauty.

1. Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan is a giant of the cinematic craft, and he turned his attention to one of the most significant moments of the 20th century in the discovery of the Atomic Age and its long-lasting consequences in Oppenheimer. Large and operatic in its spectacle, Oppenheimer was a film of cause and effect, action and consequence, and how innovation can lead to both discovery and destruction in the same moment. Nolan’s narrative was a masterwork of story, and his assembled cast, including Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr and Kenneth Branagh, led an incredible group of players and built an atmosphere of total immersion. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was an utter cinematic masterpiece and is likely to be one of the most important narrative events of the 21st century.

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John Wick (Keanu Reeves) uncovers a path to defeating the High Table, but before he can earn his freedom, Wick must face off against a new enemy with powerful alliances across the globe and forces that turn old friends into new foes.

In 2014 stuntman and action performer Chad Stahelski decided to try his hand at directing with a modestly budgeted action film called John Wick. And the very idea of action cinema would change forever. Bringing together a thrilling narrative, compelling and conflicted character, brash action, epic gun-fu combat, dazzling production design and just straight-up cinema cool. John Wick was something else and now 9 years later audiences are primed and ready for John Wick: Chapter 4. And this is a film that delivers everything you could want and more. A nearly three-hour epic of absolute action mayhem, John Wick: Chapter 4 is a globe-trotting adventure packed together with thrilling intensity as super-assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves) sets out to end the High Table’s grip over him, with bullets and bodies quickly piling up.

What audiences witness in John Wick: Chapter 4 is a filmmaker in Chad Stahelski working at the top of his game and every facet of this production comes together. Narrative, character, world-building, costuming, and some of the craziest, most-insane action set pieces that will absolutely take your breath away are all present. Stahelski works with his most lavish canvas yet thanks to JW4 taking audiences from New York to Japan, Berlin to Paris, and it’s utterly explosive. The volume is cranked all the way up on JW4 and as he’s come to do Stahelski continues with his ‘action as narrative’ story mechanism which he has developed through his work with 87Eleven. From the moment this film starts audiences will be utterly flawed and thrown backwards in their seats, and the force of this picture doesn’t let up for a second.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is an utterly astounding visceral experience and much praise must be lauded to acclaimed cinematographer Dan Laustsen. Turning his camera lens to a sepia-focused colourway, John Wick: Chapter 4 is stylistic and slick, and in the darkness of the cinema you’re transported to the high stakes, faced-paced, all-or-nothing world of John Wick. Working in conjunction with production designer Kevin Kavanaugh and costume designer Paco Delgado, Stahelski and Laustsen give each location and set of characters their own identity, and this filters through the work. From the burning sepia oranges of the streets of Paris to the heightened purple neon of Osaka, to the grimy and fierce reds of Berlin, these visual singularities elevate the setting of the film. Production and costume design also have their part to play and JW4 is an extremely lux piece of cinema to behold.

Hollywood veteran Keanu Reeves is once again front and centre as John Wick. Regarded as an unkillable and strikingly deadly assassin who hunts his prey from the shadows, Wick has a bone to chew this time and god help those who want to see him put down. With a partnership that stretches back more than twenty years, Reeves and Stahelski have a fantastic working relationship and it shows through the performance that is delivered on screen. While Reeves has shown that he’s adept when it comes to the run and gun, JW4 delves deeper into his character, and more importantly his purpose as a man. Themes of loyalty, family and legacy run deep in JW4 and we find Wick at his most thoughtful, contemplative and aggressive as he wages an all-out war against the High Table. While he may have started off as a typical noir anti-hero, John Wick has developed into the single most interesting protagonist of modern action cinema and this is all down to Reeves and his layered and stoic performance.

It’s a who’s who of names this time for JW4. Leading the hunt for Wick is Bill Skarsgard as the Marquis de Gramont, the arrogant and caddish leader of the High Table whose sense of grand hubris puts him close to the fire; Donnie Yen makes a complete 360 turn as blind assassin Caine, whose deadly skills rival Wick’s and whose complexities and comedy will win audiences over; Hiroyuki Sanada bring a Samurai sense of gravitas and respect as Yuki Shimazu, and he shares a close bond with Wick; Shamier Anderson is the hot-shot up and comer known as the Tracker who sees Wick as his ticket to the big time; Clancy Brown brings a menacing and intimidating presence as the High Table’s judge, The Harbinger; Natalia Tena turns up the heat as feisty Russian gang lord Katia, the half-sister to Wick; and martial arts legend Scott Adkins is thoroughly unrecognisable and outright crazy in his performance as the maniacal Killa. Add in support from Laurence Fishburne and Ian McShane and you’ve got something very special with JW4.

Be prepared because John Wick: Chapter 4 is a rush. Stahelski and his team of mad-genius stunt performers go all out with this fourth entry in the franchise and it makes for a manic watch. Prepare yourself for more guns, more blades, more explosions, more jujitsu and kickboxing and aikido and straight up smash mouth fight scenes, a scene where Reeves unleashes his inner Bruce Lee in a brutal nunchaku beatdown, gun-fu madness with bullets being sprayed all about, a very pissed off Belgian Malinois with serious bite and a car chase-fight scene shake up through the streets of Paris that makes for one hell of a final act. The action of JW4 is action as art, and this dance of pandemonium will make you sit up and take notice. JW4 is an example of the action genre transcending to high art. And it’s one hell of a watch. And if you manage to catch this one in IMAX, watch out, because it goes big on the BOOM.

John Wick: Chapter 4 is one of the single greatest cinema experiences I’ve ever witnessed. It was an utter event, and from beginning to end I was totally enwrapped in its detail, intensity, passion and just sheer entertainment excellence. The cinema screen exists for a film like John Wick: Chapter 4 and it’s an experience you won’t forget.

Image: StudioCanal

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Check them out below:

10. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

We’ve been waiting a long time for Guy Ritchie’s cinematic return and we’re finally on the eve of the release of his long-awaited spy-action-comedy Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Re-teaming again with long time collaborator after their masterful work on the intense and driven revenge thriller Wrath of Man, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre will allow the two of them some space to play around with the spy genre and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. With a packed-out supporting cast including Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett and Hugh Grant, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is a film you won’t want to miss out on.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre will arrive in cinemas on January 12, 2023.

9. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Marvel Studios fans will be in for a very big treat this year with some absolutely stellar releases coming our way and one of my most anticipated Marvel releases is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Marvel Studio’s Ant-Man films have long been some of my favourite entries in the MCU and I’m excited to see how director Peyton Reed pushes the envelope with this new entry. My MCU tastes lean more towards the spectacular and the cosmic so I’m incredibly excited to see how we get to explore the Quantum Realm and how the new big bad Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) is about to change the MCU forever!

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will arrive in cinemas on February 17, 2023.

8. Babylon

When it comes to rising auteur cinema voices, one man leading the charge is writer-director Damien Chazelle and he’s about to make the silent movie era loud in Babylon. With a cast including Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, Babylon is shaping up to be one of my must-watch movie events of the year and this film looks sexy, glamourous, seductive, and utterly wild.

Babylon will arrive in cinemas on January 19, 2023.

7. Killers of the Flower Moon

When it comes to cinema legends they don’t come with more talent or respect for the craft of cinema than the legendary Martin Scorsese. And this cinematic visionary is ready to bring an incredible sense of drama with his high-profile historical-dramatic-crime-epic Killers of the Flower Moon. Based on the horrendous true-life murders that occurred in Oklahoma in the early 1920s, Scorsese along with his cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons and Robert DeNiro will no doubt bring about an intense and suspenseful watch, and Killers of the Flower Moon could very well end up being one of 2023’s best releases.

Killers of the Flower Moon will be released on Apple TV+ in 2023.

6. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

When it comes to Hollywood movie stars they don’t get much bigger than Tom Cruise, and now the king of blockbuster cinema is returning as super spy Ethan Hunt for one hell of a thrill ride with 2023’s must-watch action picture Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. This first chapter in what will be a two-part epic will be the culmination of the Mission: Impossible franchise and Cruise is going all out with this action epic and is pushing the limit when it comes to stunts and action. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is shaping up to be pure cinematic action fun and audiences will be in for a rush when it releases later this year.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will arrive in cinemas on July 13, 2023.

5. John Wick: Chapter 4

Keanu Reeves is back as super-assassin John Wick and he’s ready to bring the wrath to the members of the High Table and bullets and blood will be spent. This fourth entry in what is one of Hollywood’s best new modern franchises continues to turn up the dial on the excitement and intensity of the cinema craft and both Reeves and director Chad Stahelski are ready to bring it with this one.

John Wick: Chapter 4 will arrive in cinemas on March 23, 2023.

4. Barbie

When it comes to 2023 releases one of my standout must-watch films of 2023 is undoubtedly Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. With Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in the lead, this is an absolute must-watch 2023 and the recent teaser trailer certainly got my excitement up for this pastel-coloured extravaganza, which will deliver audiences a serious twist with its narrative. Bight, colourful and packed full of fun, Barbie will get its audience grooving.

Barbie will arrive in cinemas on July 24, 2023.

3. Dune: Part Two

In 2021 visionary filmmaker Denis Villeneuve brought the grandest of science fiction epics to the big screen with Dune. Realising the mighty deserts of the world of Arrakis, Villeneuve is ready once more to transport audiences back to this far-off galaxy as he continues to the story of Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and his journey to becoming the mighty Muad’Dib. With his incredible returning cast including Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem and Stellan Skarsgard, alongside new actors including Florence Pugh, Austin Butler and the legendary Christopher Walken, Dune: Part Two is an epic that will be a must-see big screen event.

Dune: Part Two will arrive in cinemas on November 3, 2023.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3

The penultimate chapter of Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy is set to arrive this year, and I couldn’t be more excited to hang out with my all-time favourite MCU characters. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 is shaping up to be an epically fun watch, and James Gunn is once again ready to work his magic on the galaxy’s greatest-ever group of outlaws. From the first teaser, it’s clear that the emotions are going to run high with this one and I can’t wait to hear the playlist and catch the action on this must-watch MCU film.

Guardians of the Guardians Vol.3 will arrive in cinemas on May 5, 2023.

1. Oppenheimer

But when it comes down to it there’s one film that tops my list of must-watch feature films for 2022 and that’s Christopher Nolan’s WWII historical blockbuster epic, Oppenheimer. Bringing to life the genius and terror of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s creation of the atomic bomb and the dawn of the nuclear age, Oppenheimer is Nolan firing on all cylinders and this is shaping up to be a monumental achievement in cinema. Shot exclusively with IMAX cameras, Oppenheimer is a film that audiences will want to see on the biggest screen possible and its epic scale, scope, cast and narrative make this my most anticipated film of 2023.

Oppenheimer will arrive in cinemas on July 21, 2023.

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Watch the full trailer now:

Launched as a part of SDCC, this new trailer for John Wick: Chapter 4, promises to an epic and intense watch, and audiences will find their adreanl glands working over time.

While the trailer doesn’t dive into any key plot elements, except for Wick’s quest to exterminate all members of the High Table, we get a look at the all-out action of the series and the reveal of several key characters. This new look for the action is set against Reeves as Wick who is conditioning his fists on a bloodied makiwara, and he’s ready to take all of the High Table out this time around.

With an all-star cast alongside Reeves who includes Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Rina Sawayama, Donnie Yen, Shamier Anderson, Bill Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Scott Adkins, and Clancy Brown, audiences can be excited for what awaits next in John Wick: Chapter 4.

In addition to the release of the trailer, SDCC also saw a surprise appearance from Mr Wick himself, Keanu Reeves, and his presence and enthusiasm for this project is sure to amp up your excitement:

So get your sit pressed, pour yourself an old-fashioned and prepare for an epic rush when John Wick: Chapter 4 arrives in cinemas next year on March 24, 2023.

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